posted by j_crazy
I have always been an indians fan but since i'm going to be spending my foreseeable future in Pittsburgh (and the Guardians is a dumbass name) I'm changing allegiance. it'd be nice to see a winning team. I'll also say that after 4 years in this city i'm shocked they tolerate how bad this team is run. everyone here has a conniption fit about the trubisky signing and how if they draft matt corall it's an example of how bad colbert is at analyzing QB's. they all have 27 signings and trades that can shore up the 2nd and 3rd lines of the pens and guarantee mulitple cups. but with the pirates no one gives a shit. it's an odd experience. comparing it to houston where no one cares about anything ever, until a team is good then it's all hands on deck. pittsburgh is a weird example where they care so much and also not at all, simultaneously.
I think Pittsburgh and Cleveland currently are much the same when it comes to baseball fanbases in that, due to the cheapness of the owners, it's hard for fans to get overly invested unless it's late summer, the team is in contention AND the team has the green light to be buyers at the deadline in order to solidify their position. They both could be 20 over .500 in early June and be playing in front of 5000 people -- which to me is more an indictment of how little faith both fanbases have in ownership to actually build upon success.
A situation where fans will get excited if it looks like the playoffs are a legit possibility, but not until then because they know that when the year is over, a few key players will be jettisoned because they're cutting into profits and it'll be that much harder to duplicate that success. I know I remember how essential late-season pick-ups like Derek Bell and J.A. Happ were to the Pirates in their 2013-15 playoff-reaching run. I also remember how the team put no effort into resigning either of them during the offseason, instead looking for cheaper alternatives. And then core guys got older and got traded/started declining/both, as the team went from wild card winner to two-time wild card loser to winning record but no playoffs to losing record to one of the worst teams in MLB...again.
